How far have you gone this playthrough?

[theFlu]

My thing is, I go with electrical items as early as I can on my temp base.

That doesn't sound like a difference really, I do too; often times have a functional fence at my first horde (7hours in). Purchased parts; if it's the last thing I need, Mmmaybe a wrenched engine. Usually not needed, either I've found one or can't find the rest of the setup.

I do not think I did a quest until after maybe day 80 to be honest. Its all base building with me.

I used to be in that boat, but the game insists on making everything harder if you skip the loop. At some point, I just went, "Fine, ■■■■ it. Want me to quest that bad, I'll start speed-running the game." Brought me quite a few short games and a disdain for the design

 

[WarMongerian]

Wow, this thread is turning into a very active (and educational --- for me at least) thread.

Weapon wise, I have so far used the gathering tools, bows/knives, and now spears. I have seen my friend use wire cutters and make use of generators and battery banks, powering up his blade traps. I just use spike traps.

I've had the game now for just over 2 years,, and Have never really gone past tier 3 quests, and from watching my friend being sent hither and yon (always over a klick away, it seems like), I just lose interest in the diminishing returns at higher levels. One quest/visit to the trader works for me at first, but not later on, what with no way to increase the number of quests I can 'take' at one time.

Content wise, my friend has been everywhere, done everything, and there is nothing new for him anymore. For me, I can still look forward to those higher tier PoI's, if I get bored. I'm still having fun right now, and Horde Night every night works wonders, getting my guy to 300th level.

Day 39, 0807 hrs...

 

[Dead Smarty]

At this point I'm wondering if people just stick to their weapons from start or have a different specialism at start that changes after a few levels?
Personaly I found the boneknife I always have on me to skin animals from early levels still effective when getting ambushed later on while on the other hand I changed from early spear to M60 for hordenights.

 

[WarMongerian]

At this point I'm wondering if people just stick to their weapons from start or have a different specialism at start that changes after a few levels?
Personaly I found the boneknife I always have on me to skin animals from early levels still effective when getting ambushed later on while on the other hand I changed from early spear to M60 for hordenights.

I know the improved knives are slower attack, any other reason not to upgrade to hunting knife/machette?

 

[WarMongerian]

Day 40, 0834 hrs, level 185.

 

[bobrpggamer]

Content wise, my friend has been everywhere, done everything, and there is nothing new for him anymore. For me, I can still look forward to those higher tier PoI's, if I get bored. I'm still having fun right now, and Horde Night every night works wonders, getting my guy to 300th level.

Dishong Tower is a fun POI to explore, so is the Hospital POI that I have not found in 1.4 for some reason. I have yet to enter a level 5 POI. Usually takes to much time and I am always doing something else. I did found out that the Electric Power POI has a boatload of wrenchable items that produce about 1500 electric parts which is worth more than 10,000 at a trader and is not too infested.

I know the improved knives are slower attack, any other reason not to upgrade to hunting knife/machette?

I have no clue on that. I have a hunting knife now and I don't use it often. When I kill a zombie dog I just use my steel axe as I do not think the knife will produce much more hide and bones than the knife.

As a side note: I was hoping someone would say "I had an Amiga too". The greatest game PC of the late 80s early 90s!

 

[Rotor]

As a side note: I was hoping someone would say "I had an Amiga too". The greatest game PC of the late 80s early 90s!

Naw, the greatest of the 90's is the one I built in 1995. .

 

[WarMongerian]

I remember collecting commodore 64's, with no idea how I was going to network them together, ended up with 7 of those, and 2 commodore 128's as well. And I thought I was bad ■■■, lol.

 

[Riamus]

All the melee guys here. I always prefer any type of ranged weapon. I did use the spear early on but I really pumped points in things like:

Salvage Operations (when I get a wrench)
Miner 69’er
Mother Lode
Advanced Engineering

I know it does not help early bloodmoon, but my early bases usually do OK. It is of course always a bummer early game to figure out where to put points. Do you put points into the ones above knowing they will help a lot later on in game or do you just use combat perks to help bloodmoons.

My suggestion is to build a small horde base that is a set of walls with a ceiling and have a window like space on the sides to use your spears or guns or whatever. As soon as you can use concrete on the small base you will be OK for the first 5 bloodmoons, just keep a repair tool in your belt. Later on you really should get base defense items like electric fences, lots of spike traps and if you can some sort of a turret, also usually by this time you should have better than pipe ranged weapons as well.

Other than that if you do a lot of quests early on then I guess all the combat perks are the ones to put points into. I usually just scavenge and start building my first primitive base at about day 5.

But I am sure we all have our own preference for early game survival.

I almost never put anything in Advanced Engineering. I only put points into the mining perks in the mid game. I just don't have much need for mining before then, so there's no need to rush those. I'll start with a couple points in Spear Mastery and Parkour. After that, it is just whatever I feel like in a given game. Sometimes I'll work on Gunslinger early and other times not until the second bloodmoon. The same for the sniper perk.

As far as horde bases go, it's rare that I use electric fences or barbed wire fences. Spike traps (wooden only) are maybe 50/50. Sometimes I will add them and other times I don't bother. I'll add SMG and/or shotgun turrets and blade traps and a sledgehammer turret and maybe even a junk turret behind me to handle vultures so I don't have to. But most of the kills are from my sniper rifle and not from any kind of trap.

 

[Riamus]

I've had the game now for just over 2 years,, and Have never really gone past tier 3 quests, and from watching my friend being sent hither and yon (always over a klick away, it seems like), I just lose interest in the diminishing returns at higher levels. One quest/visit to the trader works for me at first, but not later on, what with no way to increase the number of quests I can 'take' at one time.

It's really up to you whether or not to do quests. No quest rewards other than for tier completion are really all that significant. The magazine bundles can certainly speed things up and depending on your needs, some of the other rewards can be nice, but in general, the rewards aren't that significant anymore. But I'd still recommend doing the higher tier POI even if you're not doing quests in them. There are some really amazing higher tier POI in the game. It would be a shame not to experience them.

As far as the distance to quests, keep in mind that you have a vehicle by then. And usually a faster one (motorcycle, 4x4, or gyrocopter). Consider the time it takes to run to quests that are 200-300m away before you have a bike. Then consider the time to drive 1-2km on a motorcycle or other fast vehicle. It really isn't much different. I know you sometimes have quests that are 4km or more away, but you usually can get even tier 5 quests that are within 2km as long as you're not in the center of the forest with no other nearby biomes.

At this point I'm wondering if people just stick to their weapons from start or have a different specialism at start that changes after a few levels?
Personaly I found the boneknife I always have on me to skin animals from early levels still effective when getting ambushed later on while on the other hand I changed from early spear to M60 for hordenights.

I use the same melee weapon start to finish every game. Ranged starts with a pistol and evolves to a desert vulture (still a handgun) and a sniper rifle for horde nights. I rarely use any other rifles, so I go from handgun to rifle only mid to late game.